As club organizations across the nation look to expand—oftentimes starting teams in different states from where they’re based—it seems some are getting creative in coming up with ways to attract new talent.

One new trend we’re seeing is the use of video to show what the organization has to offer.

In April, we got a look at the Beverly Bandits’ beginning the journey to PGF Nationals in a video called “The Road to Huntington Beach.”

Then, at the PGF Nationals and NPF playoffs, the Birmingham Thunderbolts unveiled a 32 second commercial of the team in action beginning with the question, “What makes a Thunderbolt?”

The ad, which you can check out below, then shows footage on and off the field of the Premier team running through drills at the team’s impressive complex in Birmingham, Ala.

The clip ends with a graphic showing the Bolts’ logo and website with the comment, “Visit us online to learn more about how you can become a Thunderbolt.”

Whatever the organization is doing, it seems to be working: the 18U Premier team won the DeMarini Invitational Showcase in Chicago this summer and finished tied for 3^rd at PGF Premier Nationals while the 16U team finished tied for 3^rd and the 14U and 12U teams finished tied for 5^th in their respective PGF Premier Nationals age divisions.

Richard Shea, the head of the Bolts organization says of the commercial, “I advertise for the Thunderbolts because expanding our brand will help us remain competitive on a national level.”

Shea says he needs to go beyond Central Alabama to draw elite talent to match up with teams from bigger states.

“The state of Alabama only has a population of four million,” he continues, “so we have to draw players from a much larger geographic area than many of our competitors to be competitive.”

“States like California and Texas have 38 and 27 million people; heck Orange and Los Angeles counties alone have 50 percent more people than all of Alabama. With the larger population base and nearly nonexistent winters in California, it’s no surprise that many of the best teams in the country are from there and in years past we had trouble competing, but not anymore.”

The former defensive lineman at Auburn says that has led to standout athletes coming from all over the nation, from as far away as Connecticut in the East, Minnesota in the Midwest and California in the West.

And he says the ad has served its purpose well.

“Since running the ads at PGF and NPF championship broadcasts, our Bolts website has been flooded with player registrations from all over the country and in every age division,” he states.

“We have a very good system for storing registrations in a database and sharing them with our coaches within minutes of receipt. I feel like we are getting our money’s worth out of the ads and I plan to continue to run them.”

Shea closes with a good-natured promise.

“It won’t be long before we’ll have teams winning PGF. My girls are hungry, so keep an eye out for us… we coming!”